My mentor Ken Touchton called to tell me that I need to show what I might do during a week of my life. He knew that what we do as freelancers, if you are succesful takes more time than a 9 to 5 job with occasional evening events.
I decided to start with a busy shooting week for you and then contrast it to a slower week. I want you to see how some weeks you have no time at all to yourself. I am not doing this every week, but you must be willing to take on weeks like this to be successful as a freelancer. It is feast or famine in this line of work.
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| I have been using the Nikon NPS pocket calendars since 1983. This might be more telling of my camera preference than anything else. |
August 29th, Monday· 6:00 a.m. Getting up shower, eat and pack vano Check emails· 7:00 a.m. Leave the house with Photo Assistant· 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. photo shooto During the day the CEO asks to get photos for a PowerPoint slide the next day. ( I contact my person who was going to be getting the photos that night to process the next day to meet me at the meeting to start processing all the images early. By the way this person was going to watch my daughter while my wife is out of town)· 9:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. editing and creating PowerPoint slides from all the days images to email to the CEO for him to have 3 choices to pick from. Put batteries on chargers. Reformat cards and clean cameras.o Check emails
August 30th, Tuesday· 6:00 a.m. Getting up Shower, eat and pack van. Help be sure daughter is up and ready for school bus.o Check emails· 7:30 a.m. leave house with Photo Assistant· 9:30 a.m – 5:30 p.m. cover meeting again.· 6:30 p.m. arrive home cook dinner and hand over all images to photographer/assistant to process. She will process all the RAW images from last two days. Edit out bad moments and make JPEGs. These will be burned to DVDs and put in FedEx package (which I have already prepared) to drop off to be overnighted to the client for Thursday morning.· 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. unpack van and charge batteries and then pack for the trip tomorrow
o Check emails - Create Invoice and send the PDF to the client with a W-9 form
August 31st, Wednesday· 6:30 a.m. Up and getting daughter off to School. My photo assistant stayed over to get daughter off to school and be there to meet her later in the day when she came home. (wife is still on trip)o Check emails· 9:00 a.m. leave for the airport· 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 Sit at airport checking emails and corresponding about todays trip. Also sending thank you notes to the clients on Monday and Tuesday. Check with Friend/Assistant watching my daughter.· 12 – 3 fly across country· 3:30 get to Rental Car location 45 minutes later after putting in address to GPS on the road for 2 hours to location.· 5:30 p.m. drop by the location that I will be shooting the next day and meet the people and talk for an hour to get an idea of the place.· 6:30 – 8:30 go to each with the writer on the project· 8:30 – 10 check in hotel, unpack and setup computer as work station and check emails and respond.
September 1, Thursday· 6:30 am up eat and checking emails. (Still planning photo shoot of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff in couple days)· 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Shooting stills and Video interviews of story· 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. go eat· 8:00 – 11:00 p.m. editing of images and video
September 2, Friday· 3:00 a.m. get up and drive 2 hours to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight back to Atlanta· Noon – touch down in Atlantao Get bags and go to parking service to pick up van and drive home· 1:30 p.m. finally home· 2:00 – 9:00 p.m. Edit video and still images into a 2:30 minute package and send to client for changes and approvals.o Checking emails and phone calls about the next day. Scan all receipts and create expenses report and email this to client for the trip.
September 3, Saturday· 9:00 a.m. Slept in and am exhausted· 11 a.m. Wife, Daughter and I eat lunch· 12:00 drop daughter off at friends and then my wife and I drive to the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game. Dorie, my wife, has been volunteering in the press box for 18 years and for a much shorter time I have covered the games for clients like the teams, wire services and corporate clients.· 1:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. cover the pre-game events, the game and then leave
September 4, Sunday· 8:00 a.m. – noon edit all my images from the day before· 1:00 – 4:00 download images from two other photographers and put together a sights and sounds 2-minute slide show with audio. Send this to the client to have published on Monday morning.
During that week of shooting I was still checking my voice mail, because I couldn't take calls while shooting, but the moment I had a break I would listen and see if I needed to respond. You have to respond pretty quickly to offers or clients move on to someone else.
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| I still like to use the moleskin's and NPS calendar even with today's new technology which lets you sync your phone, iPad and computer with your calendar, notes and contacts. |
Non Shooting Week
September 19, Monday· 6:30 a.m. Shower, breakfast· 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. drive to Visual Consulting client’s Corporate Offices· 9 – 10 a.m. checking emails and talking to folks in the office by seeing how they are doing. Building relationships· 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. two meetings back to back. I listen in on editorial meetings. I am listening to see what they have planned for visuals on projects. Occasionally I ask about what they have planned. Many times I have a list of ideas that I am ready to offer as suggestions. But most of the time I am trying to think more strategically and offering observations when appropriate in the meetings on workflow and procedures.· 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. eat in the corporate dining room. This is actually another long meeting. I try and sit with new folks when I can or sit with some of the team that I work with to get to know them better. I find out what they are working on and see how they are doing.· 1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. more one-on-one meetings with different people in departments around the company trying to be sure they are all aware of how we are there to serve them.· 3:30 – 5 commute homeo Making and taking phone calls along the way. Often following up on a conversation earlier in the day.· 5 – 6 p.m Checking on emails and working on connecting with clients
September 20, Tuesday· 6:30 a.m. Shower, breakfast· 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. drive to Visual Consulting client’s Corporate Offices· 9 – 10 a.m. checking emails and talking to folks in the office by seeing how they are doing. Building relationships· 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. meetings· 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. eat in the corporate dining room.· 1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. more one-on-one meetings· 3:30 – 5 commute homeo Making and taking phone calls along the way. Often following up on a conversation earlier in the day.· 5 – 6 p.m Checking on emails and working on connecting with clients· evening sometime – write this blog and post it.
September 21, Wednesday· 6:30 a.m. Shower, breakfast· 8:00 a.m. – 11: 30 a.m.o Often posting blog or working on the next one.o Going through my database of 5,000+ contacts and seeing who I have not contacted. Often this then prompts me to categorize those and write an email that I can then blast out to a group that appears to be very personal, but is often to similar audience. An example might be a letter to all those who are at magazines, working for education or maybe church organizations.o Check my analytics on my blog and website· 11:30 – 1:00 try and get lunch with my wife who works from home as well· 1: 00 – 5:00 p.m.o Similar to the morning, but now checking to see how many emails bounced, what links they clicked on if any.o Responding to the responses from the emails. Sometimes they have something else in mind and my email just prompted a call.o Removing people from my database that have lost their job or moved on. Creating a new contact for these companies. This requires some investigation through their website often or a phone call to see who is the best new contact for me.· 5:30 – 7:30 Wednesday evening meal and bible study at our churcho Side note. Because of my profession and working in the past on the staff of church organization, I have been asked to help curate missions photography exhibits, teach classes on how to take photos on mission trips and asked to teach Sunday School. While I could teach without a seminary degree, my seminary training helps me pull on resources I have for these classes. I often will use examples of stories I have covered to make points. This is part of my BRANDING.
September 22, Thursday· 6:30 a.m. Shower, breakfast· 8:00 a.m. – 11: 30 a.m.o Checking emails and correspondence.o Combing website to look for new contacts, which then I put in database and send them an email right away. I have created some quick form letters that I customize for the recipient.o Review my presentation for UGA photojournalism students· 11:30 – 1:00 drive to Athens, GA for presentation to UGAo Phone calls while in car to clients and potential clients.· 1:00 p.m. Eat quick lunch· 1:30 p.m. show up at Professors office to catch up and prepare for class· 2 – 4 p.m. teach class· 4 – 4: 30 p.m. answer some questions from students· 4:30 – 6 p.m. drive homeo Phone calls while in car to clients and potential clients.· Evening – check some emails and call it a day.
September 23, Friday· 6:30 a.m. Shower, breakfast· 8:00 a.m. – 11: 30 a.m.o Often posting blog or working on the next one.o Going through my database of 5,000+ contacts and seeing who I have not contacted. Often this then prompts me to categorize those and write an email that I can then blast out to a group that appears to be very personal, but is often to similar audience. An example might be a letter to all those who are at magazines, working for education or maybe church organizations.o Check my analytics on my blog and website· 11:30 – 1:00 try and get lunch with my wife who works from home as well· 1: 00 – 5:00 p.m.o Similar to the morning, but now checking to see how many emails bounced, what links they clicked on if any.o Responding to the responses from the emails. Sometimes they have something else in mind and my email just prompted a call.o Removing people from my database that have lost their job or moved on. Creating a new contact for these companies. This requires some investigation through their website often or a phone call to see who is the best new contact for me.
September 24, Saturday· Spend an hour checking emails
September 25, Sunday· Spend an hour checking emails· Spend an hour to couple hours writing blog
Some Tips
Keep a Journal
I try and journal as often as I can. I find that by writing down the things on my mind is a way to help me process. I then have looked back through this to remind me a few things. First, of all I see that I survived what seemed like a major deal. Second, it keeps me humbled and thankful for all the blessings I have received.
I can now look back and see that I worked very hard to make things happen, but also because I am reviewing these journals see that often the jobs I have gotten were not because of something I did. Many times I get jobs for reasons I cannot explain and a great deal of work I did may have helped, but I can see only God could have opened some of those doors for me.
Write it down
Sometimes I will have an idea and in the past I would forget about those great ideas. Now I write them down in something similar to my journal. While I now see that some of these "Great Ideas" wouldn't work, they have helped keep my creative juices flowing. Now I often turn these "Great Ideas" into blogs or they become a newsletter. Sometimes they have inspired me to write emails to clients that did lead to jobs.
Summary
Have a system in place to keep you continuously connecting with your clients and potential clients on a regular basis. Think often about your clients and what they are dealing with and see if there is anyway you can help lighten their load.
Remember don't wait for clients to call you with a project--you call them with projects they would want to do.
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